A great American city lays in waste. The odor of sweat, tears and Cheetoes still lingers, as do the crushed hopes of those who hit snooze one too many times instead of getting their butt on line. It will take one full year to recover.

That’s right friends – Comic-Con International, as no one calls it anymore, has just ended and your friends from SlashFilm were in San Diego in full force. We’re there every year, watching successes launch (yay Avengers) and witnessing disasters stumble (not-so-yay Terminator Salvation.)

Then there are other movies. Movies that coulda been a contender but, for whatever reason, just didn’t connect. Here are films that had a presence in San Diego that, we feel, should have been bigger hits. This week will be a little less obscure than usual, but we think it’ll still be fun. Read More »

This Week in DVD & Blu-ray is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD and Blu-ray releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.

THE INFORMANT!
The true tale at the core of The Informant! is not one that would appear to lend itself very well to comedy, and yet in taking that approach, director Steven Soderbergh managed to craft a sly, unusual little satire that both amuses and perplexes in all the right ways. Soderbergh’s interests appear to lie less in the lysine price-fixing conspiracy that the story revolves around than in the peculiar actions of high-ranking executive Mark Whitacre, presenting an ever-evolving portrait of a goofy, naïve, affable and possibly deranged whistleblower. Viewers will likely feel uneasy at the way the film is presented from Whitacre’s perspective, providing endless stream-of-consciousness anecdotes about corn, polar bears and ’90s corporate thrillers, and yet never giving you a strong sense of what his motives are or what exactly he’s trying to accomplish. The longer the film moves forward though, the more it becomes clear that that’s exactly the point; not even Whitacre is sure why he does the things he does, and it isn’t until he runs out of lies to tell that he stops running his mouth long enough to let that notion dawn on him. Matt Damon’s hilarious, Oscar-deserving performance conveys these facets of Whitacre perfectly, and in doing so, assists Soderbergh in the creation of one of recent cinema’s most fascinating, oddball characters.Available on Blu-ray? Yes.Notable Extras: DVD – Deleted scenes. Blu-ray – Includes everything on the DVD, as well as a commentary with director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Burns, and a digital copy of the film.

This just in: Tom Cruise still does his own stunts and Mary Hart still thinks it’s goddamn amazing. Ever since Cruise’s romantic action comedy changed its title from the serious-sounding Wichita to the jump-out-a-castle-windowish, Knight & Day, I don’t think any of our readers have wondered, “How is that film going?” And even though the current title befits a high concept Matt LeBlanc comeback vehicle, the lack of awareness is odd since Knight is due next summer and directed by James Mangold, who can aptly do the macho-thing (3:10 to Yuma), the girl-thing (Girl, Interrupted), and in between (Walk the Line). In a Vanilla Sky reunion, Cameron Diaz co-stars with Cruise as the romantic interest. She has plenty of happy things to say about him (and the flick’s dangerous stunts with footage!) after the jump…

Paramount has issued a press release gloating that Paranormal Activity has just passed $100 million domestically. And they should gloat, with a film that was made for only $15,000, and purchased by Paramount for either $300,000 or $350,000, depending on what report you read. You can try to figure out the multiplier on that, but any way you add it up, it’s probably the most successful investment in the company’s history. Especially considering how little the company spent on marketing for the film. This week, the movie will have been in theaters nationwide for a month, and is still making over $8 million over a weekend, which is enough to beat out Warner Bros’ $30 million sci-fi thriller The Box in its debut.

The movie has become the top grossing R-Rated thriller of the past decade. Right now it stands as the fifth largest horror/supernatural movie release of all time, and is on track to unseat The Grudge for the #4 spot. Paranormal is also the #22 highest grossing film of the year, and is set to overtake Zack Snyder’s $130-$180 million budgeted adaptation of Watchmen in a week or two. Full press release after the jump.

Like many, I’m eagerly awaiting Richard Kelly’s upcoming sci-fi thriller The Box. I’ve loved pretty much everything I’ve seen promoting the film, and the clip below has ramped up my excitement even further. It comes courtesy of MTV Movie blog, where Kelly also details how he went about convincing Win Butler and Regine Chassagne (of Arcade Fire) to score the film along with Owen Pallett (from the band Final Fantasy).

We do get to hear a bit of the score in the clip, and I’m definitely liking it. It’s heavy on the strings and helps to build suspense quite well—even though we have no clue about the context of this scene between James Marsden and Gillian Jacobs. Kelly mentions that the score is probably worth the price of admission alone. I wouldn’t expect any less from such a talented trio.

Last week Warner Bros made a few scheduling shifts, delaying Richard Kelly‘s sci-fi thriller The Box, once again. This time the film was only pushed back one week, from October 30th to a November 6th release. This film has been delayed so many times that I won’t believe it is out until I see it on the big screen for myself. Director Kelly insisted on Twitter that the change was “good news” and that he was “much happier with this date!”

During the Warner Bros. panel this morning in Hall H, Richard Kelly took the stage, alongside stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, to show off four minutes from his upcoming film The Box. This footage gave a much better indication than the first trailer of the scope of the film, and also was the public debut of the music by Win Butler and the Arcade Fire. The vibe had a lot of classic Twilight Zone feel, and the music conjures up tones of suspense from the ’60s and ’70s. Then add the sort of effects you’d expect to see from Kelly. (Think shimmering water and energy fields.) Some comments and description of the footage is after the break. Beware, though, that a variety of mild and severe spoilers follow. Read More »

I spoke with Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) this morning about his third film, The Box, which will be out in theaters in October 30. But while I was there, I couldn’t resist asking him about a cryptic Twitter message he sent out last week, saying that he’d completed his next script, and that it’d be an expensive film. Hit the jump to hear a few details about what I found out.Read More »